1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to coiling and binding strand material and, more particularly, to methods of and apparatus for providing a hank or length of coiled cordage having a plurality of convolutions with end portions of the cordage extending therefrom and with adjacent corresponding portions of the convolutions being bound together at substantially opposed points of the coiled cordage.
2. Prior Art
The communications industry requires the provision of telephone line cords which connect telephone handsets to a wall terminal. These are provided to an installer in the form of a length of cordage such as for example that described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,868,341 coiled in a predetermined number of convolutions with the ends thereof subsequently finished. The finishing includes, for example, the assembly of modular plugs, such as for example those illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,699,498 and 3,761,869 to the ends of the cordage. Prior art coil or hank winding is known. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 2,654,980.
Desirably, the cordage is coiled prior to end finishing. It is therefore important that the coil be maintained intact during the end finishing operation. Many prior art techniques resort to the application of a tie, e.g., a thermoplastic band, about the entire coil after the convolutions thereof have been elongated so that opposite portions of the convolutions are adjacent each other. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,024,580. Pull-out of ones of convolutions coiled and secured in this manner could occur.
The prior art, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,349,750, shows the bending of upper extremeties of a U-shaped clip to become curled over adjacent convolutions of a wire entanglement used in warfare.
Coiling cordage and then moving the coil to a station where a tie is introduced centrally of the coil and then tied about one section of the coil is shown on page 19 of Western Electric Technical Digest No. 34, April, 1974 issue. Moving the unbound coil tends to distort the configuration thereof and causes problems when attempting to introduce the tie.